ago, we set forth our new, more audacious goals, and that goal was to reach 75% of version by 2010. -- 75 percent diversion. and eventually get to zero waste by 2020. people said that was cute, that was fun, but these guys have lost it because they do not understand. i remember listening to these experts saying that we just did not understand how it works. the first 50% or 60% is the easy part. once you get past 60% or 65%, then every% increase comes at a huge cost. it is too difficult, but we thought we could put it together, and one of the ideas was to create a construction and debris ordinance, which we passed in 2006. this was landmark legislation.

where we said if you were going to develop or get in the construction business or remodel or reconstruct and demolish, the you have got to get -- what? roughly 60%? 65% of that debris diverted. that helped. the construction industry was not necessarily opposed. they saw some benefit. they have got to dispose of this one way or another. requires some on-site disposals and strategies that at the time took a little different kind of thinking, but eventually, people got it right. we extended the small folks you see behind me in the pickup truck, so they do not have to worry about their back yard and their little kitchen, but for the bigger projects, we did this, and suddenly, our numbers started to creep up over 70%. no city in america has ever come close to that. there are cities just down the road that have not even reach

50%. big cities can never even imagined 50% or 55%, and here we are. i remember being mayor out here a number of years back, and we were proud of 7%. they said it would be very difficult to reach that 75%. that income is tough. until last year when we came out and we were out here and we have the hard hats on, and we came out and said because not only that construction and building debris ordinance, but because of this new idea on composting, which we realize was a big component of the remaining waste that is here that was not being diverted that if we could raise the bar be on the first ordinance with this next order is, that we could reach that goal, and we announced that we were close. we were at 72%. this again was historic and people were mesmerized, and no one more than us, that we could

reach that goal because the incredible work that you see from the folks behind me and the imagination of recology. and then composting happen. first city in america to require composting. "san francisco's off the deep been. they have lost." we do not know why it did not happen before. the ban on plastic bags, and no one could shop again. we have shut the economy down. water bottles. now with composting, you have gone too far. "you mean, sir, that you will require me to take eggshells, and i have to put them where? the green, the blue, no, no, the green -- that is too much." san franciscans could never figure this out, and some actually went to my private garbage. reporters had a photograph

taken of my garbage. it opened the lid. came down and visit me at home. there was a top of a water bottle in a green been, not the blue one. this is outrageous. the garbage police are next because they are going to find you. this is a way of generating money. of course, what we were ultimately generating was hysteria. now, we are here to celebrate what we have really generated is jobs. the folks you see behind me are green collar examples. these are the folks that because of these proposals, because of these new ideas have work and have the dignity that comes with a paycheck. 118 jobs have been created in the last couple of years since

we instituted some of these new proposals. recology has over 1000 folks disproportionately in the recycling business now. that is why they changed their name, so there was this notion of recovery, as opposed to the old scavenger framework. it was all about hauling and just dumping. now, it is about hauling and diverting, and the jobs that are part of this are the jobs of the new economy, and that is what we are celebrating. 77% of our waste is being diverted, highest in the united states of america, shattering our hopes and expectations of reaching that 75% milestone and giving us so much mentum -- momentum and enthusiasm that that goal, talk about a truly 20% city, is proving this can be down, right in front of us. let me end as i began --

enthusiastically. i do not think this is a big deal. i know this is a big deal. the more i tell, not just the state, but the country, and i see folks all around the world, and they are dumbfounded by what the city has accomplished. you know how cities really operate? what you do not want to understand is what goes on and goes down here. this is about waste water. this is the stuff that lies beneath the surface, and at the end of the day, it is the stuff that really matters because at the end of the day is the work that these guys are doing behind me in this building. jobs, the new economy, these mandates that brought people together, not divided people. no, garbage police are not out there. the business community did not disappear. quite the contrary. what we have done is raise the

bar for others. we have given people the sense that this could be done. more to the point, why should you care about this outside of san francisco? you should care deeply about this because again, it is those in urban centers that are consuming the vast majority of resources and then disposing them in your back yards in a landfill near you. unless we come up with creative ideas, we are going to be dumping all of our waste. these cities will be dumping their waist down the road from your playground, down the road from your park, so this is something that all californians, all americans should be gravitating towards and enthusiastic about. the new paradigm of being able to deal with a very tangible thing that needs to be dealt with in an urban america in a way that creates jobs, creates wealth, and promotes the ultimate frame of environmental sensibility and environmental

responsibility, reducing methane gas emissions, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and reducing the need to purchase and develop larger, more burdensome, more toxic landfills throughout the region, state, and the country, including on those will barges you see in other cities that just do not get this. i am proud of this. i want to thank the rest of the folks at recology the good work that was done by our commission, and the partnerships that we formed. this is a true public-private partnership, and i'm thankful for all the hard working men and women at recology. thank you. [applause] >> hang you, mayor newsom, and

thank you for helping us achieve our 77% landfill that version rate -- thank you, mayor newsom. we need to focus our attention on achieving 0 waste by 2020. to meet our goal, we will need the continued participation of all san franciscans in the mandatory composting and recycling program, making sure that everything possible goes into the blue and green bins, and as little as possible goes into the black. as the mayor pointed out, we sent the smallest amount of material to landfills since we have been keeping records. less than 15% the year before. we are right on track, and if we keep up achieve 0 well in san francisco well before 2020. .9 waste in san francisco well before 2020. we already accomplished this lovely to a degree with bans on

hard to recycle products like plastic bagszek]ñisr and a the. there are actions globally, but change does need to happen at the state and federal level, and that is why san francisco has been supporting extended producer responsibility legislation in sacramento and washington. taxpayers and local governments shell out millions of dollars every year to handle problem products. it is time that we require that manufacturers take responsibilityrw for their own actions and their products. when we hold corporations responsible for making sure the products they sell get recycled properly and one public health and environmental costs are factored into that product price, manufacturers have a strong incentive to design goods that last longer, are easily recyclable, and ultimately are less toxic. we need to give a lot of credit to our partners at recology for the city's recycling success.

we do not have a garbage company. we have a recycling company. so it is my distinct pleasure to introduce recology's ceo and san francisco's no. 1 ally in zero ways. mike. [applause] -- zero ways. mike. >> thank you, and thank you, mayor newsom, for using our site for this announcement. we are pleased to be the city's goals that the city sets forth. some of them have been rather exciting to try to accomplish, but it has been found, and we are going to ensure that this city isw6r;[ñhr the first to ace zero ways, and we are going to do it before 2020. there are a lot of exciting things going on, and we believe it is doable, and we are committed to making sure it happens. in the process, it has been

pleasing for us to be able to put people to work doing a very necessary function. i want to introduce mimi chan, who came to us through the jobs now program and has been able to get to work doing something that we did not have the money to do before the programf5b gave us te work -- the money to do the work. >> i love this company. when i first started, i was really excited because i was working for a green company. when i leave, just about work. i bring my work home. i teach my kids about recycling, composting, and when i go to another city, another state, it angers me to see people throw everything in the garbage. i tell them that they cannot do that.u we have think i'm crazy,' but when my -

year-old steps in and says if you have to recycle and compost, they know that i am serious. i love my job. kvfutu3ñiññi have kids. i have kids, and it is just securing its future for my kids, my grandkids, and everybody down the line, and i thank you for the opportunity. >>ñ%iñkó we have 3000 to 5000 s come through here every year,y home and teach their parents how to do it right. as all these families are visiting other communities, it is amazing how many other places want to achieve what we're doing here, and wegqvúr?r think we arn a position to help them accomplish that. mayor newsom: interesting anecdote. you will probably appreciate -- no, you probably will not, but i will throw it out anyway. [laughter] we've diverted about 8 million tons of waste, which is roughly twice the tonnage of the golden gate bridge. we only put about -- what?

600,000 tons into the landfill, which again, to put it in perspective -- just 200,000 tons last just in the second, so see how quickly we are moving to reach our goals? it is an extraordinary thing. what is equally extraordinary is the need to continue to promote these programs. we still have roughly 2/3 of what is here that still goes to landfills. that can be recycled, so we still have all this low hanging fruit -- literally, fruit -- that can be easily composted that is still being put to a landfill because we are not separating all of it. we have seen a 45% increase in composting. without being punitive, without being aggressive, just educating folks. being thoughtful, encouraging

people, but again, we are still within the margin of where we could be if everyone again steps up to the plate. final point -- it is the kid that you go to the public schools, and you see these little kids. j6óçw3we fund salad bars in the schools, and you see kids with broccoli, and they may not have finished it, but at least they were not eating pizza and burritos, and then they run over and put it in a)e composting thing, and they find out that compost goes and creates something called soil, and that garrett -- they take some of that dirt that does not now valley and all those fancy wine areas that look at this as liquid gold or -- what is it? what do you guys call it? black gold. i like that. you give a little back to the schools, and the schools take that and put it in their little garden outside, and then they actually learn about

7 there are no shortcuts in life, and the important lesson is that a lot of us have forgotten. these are important life lessons. all part of the edible schoolyard initiative and the educational component that ;>me2ci in a meaningful way, and kids, again, are leading the charge. that was my added anecdote. exactly. whatever. all right, come on back. >> thank you, everyone, for coming. we did want to thank mayor newsom for your leadership and all the great staff at san francisco department of the environment. robert daly, kevin drew, the of the facility.

>> it has been amazing. the people have been so gracious and so supportive of what we're doing. the energy here is fantastic with so many couples getting married. it's just been an absolutely fantastic experience, so wonderful. >> by the power vested in me, i declare you spouses for life. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> to actually be able to get married and be a part of this time in history and time in our history is amazing. >> this is a momentous occasion for us to be able to actually have this opportunity to have equal rights. >> we have been together for 14 years. everyone is so welcoming.

it's been all set up and people have guided us from step to step. it's been easy. there was live music. people are so friendly and excited. so excited for us. >> it's really great. >> yeah. >> and salvador is party a here to known as party a. >> on the out it looks pretty simple. you come in, you made your appointment. you pay. you go here for your license. you got there to get married. you go there if you want to purchase a certified copy. behind the scenes, there was just this monumental just mountain of work, the details into everything that we had to do and we quickly realized that we were not ready to issue the numbers of licenses that people are anticipating that we would need to issue. we definitely did not want people waiting in long lines. this is somebody's wedding. you want to be able to plan and

invite your family and friends. know what time you are able to get your marriage license, know what time you're going to have your ceremony. >> thanks for volunteering. >> we got city volunteers, we got members of the public volunteering. we had our regular volunteers volunteering. we had such an overwhelming response from city employees, from the members of the general public that we had way more volunteers than we could ever have hoped for. we had to come up with a training program. i mean, there are different functions of this whole operation. you were either, you know a check-in person. you were a greeter. you were part of the license issuing unit. you were deputy marriage commissioner, or you were on the recording side. each one of those functions

required a different set of skills, a different oath of office if they needed to be sworn in as a deputy county clerk to issue marriage licenses or as a deputy county recorder if they were going to register the marriage licenses or the deputy marriage commissioner if they were going to be performing ceremonies. >> donna, place the ring on her ring finger. >> the marriage commissioner training was only about a half hour. it was very simple. very well run, very smooth and then we were all sworn in. >> they said we would get our scheduled sunday night and so 7:00, 8:00, 10:00, you know, i got it at 11:00. this person who was orchestrating all of the shifts and the volunteers and who does what, you know, said from her office sunday night at 11:00. they are just really helping each other. it's a wonderful atmosphere in that way. >> have you filled out an application? >> not yet. you want to do that.

>> take this right over there. >> all right. >> take it tout counter when you're done. >> very good. >> congratulations, you guys. >> for those volunteers, what a gift for them as well as us that they would take up their time and contribute that time, but also that they would in return receive so much more back because they're part of the narrative of someone else's love and expression of love in life. >> this isn't anything that we had budgeted for, so it was basically we asked our i.t. director to do the best you can, you know, belling, borrow, steal if you have to and get us what you need to do this. and he knew what the mission was. he knew what our goal was. and, you know, with our i.t. grids and our software vender, they really came together and pulled it together for us. it made it possible for us to be able to serve as many couples as we have been. >> so once you're ready, you

and your husband to be or wife need to be need to check in here and check in again, ok. are you also going to get married today? >> yeah. >> let's process you one by one. do your license in, exit and re-enter again check in at that desk. >> our wedding is at 3:00. >> as long as we get you in today. >> we're getting married at 2:30. >> don't worry about the time line. we're greeting people at the doorway and either directing them to the services they need on this side which is licensing or the services on this side which is actually getting the ceremony performed. >> this is an opportunity to choose to be a part of history. many times history happens to us, but in this case, you can choose to be a part of it. this is a very historic day and so i'm very, very proud to be here. >> i have been volunteering. last monday i performed 12 different marriage smones. the least amount of time that

any of the couples that i married have been together is two years. most of the couples have been together eight, nine, 10, i'd say 70% have been together at least that long if not longer. >> there is a lot of misconception about who gay and lesbian people are. it's important that people see that we love our husbands and wives to be and love our children and have the right to have families just like everyone else. >> it's important that we have experienced our own families, our own friends, and the excitement of the volunteers when we get here has made us feel wonderful and accepted and celebrated. >> there is a lot of city agencies, city departments, divisions that offer up their employees to help us out since overwhelming response, it's

unbelievable at how city government works. this is the time that san francisco city employees have really outshined san francisco's clerk's office didn't need to hear from the mayor to say what's your plan. they offered a plan and said here is our strategy. here is what we can do. we can add all of these computers here and there. we can connect our databases, we can expand our capacity by x. we can open up early and stay late and stay open on the weekends. it's unbelievable. we can coordinate all of the training for our volunteers and them in as deputy marriage commissioners and make sure it's signed and certified. that's an example and a model for others. this is -- what happens is when people prove that things can be done, it just raises the bar for what is possible for everyone else. >> it kind of went cooled plan

and this is what we planned for. in some respects, people have kind of commented to me, oh, my god, you were a part of history and how many couples did we mary? how many families did we start? how many dreams did we make come true? the whole part of being part of history is something that we are here and we are charged with this responsibility to carry out.

>> i work with the department of environment and we are recycling oil. thank you. we can go into a refinery and we can use it again. they do oil changes and sell it anyway, so now they know when a ticket to a. hal>> to you have something you

want to get rid of? >> why throw it away when you can reuse it? >> it can be filtered out and used for other products. >> [speaking spanish] >> it is going to be a good thing for us to take used motor oil from customers. we have a 75-gallon tank that we used and we have someone take it from here to recycle. >> so far, we have 35 people. we have